“Everyone is in a waiting mode,” waiting to find out what happened and why, and “what will happen,” Father Saint-Félix said. He asked the Jesuits in Haiti and the lay people who work with them to stay off the streets.

The United States is not the only nation struggling with the problem of outspoken priests becoming entangled with the partisan politics of the day.

Vatican sources said that during the meeting they “touched on all the hot button issues, including the situation in the Middle East, the Holy Land and China.”

“The Holy See fears the collapse of the country,” Archbishop Paul Gallagher, the Vatican’s secretary for relations with states, stated frankly.

“In every large city in Brazil, you can now see a greater number of kids begging for money or selling candy on the streets than before the pandemic.”

The bishops could be the Biden administration’s strongest allies in the region in alleviating the problems that force people to try to reach the United States.